Name(s): Princess Mononoke / Mononoke Hime / もののけ姫 / Prinzessin Mononoke / La Princesa Mononoke / Princesse Mononoké
Format: Movie
Studio(s): Studio Ghibli

Breathtakingly beautiful and worth a watch for that alone, Princess Mononoke is held back from being a masterpiece through its narrow, naïve one-sided depictions of man and nature. The human side isn’t shown well enough with how their quality of life could improve though the iron industry, and even Mononoke and the animals are portrayed as too vicious and out for blood to be very empathetic. Ashitaka is the only reasonable one, but the movie still leans too unfairly on the forest’s side.

It’s difficult to be emotionally moved by any part of Princess Mononoke when the side that’s constantly favored and demanding pity from the narrative is so bloodthirsty and vindictive. God forbid these monsters have to share the Earth with other life—it’s only the humans who are wrong. This movie at its worst made me angry over the exact opposite things it was intending, which just made me angrier, as I felt I was being misled.